Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Friday, 12 February 2010

Playback Success!!

Went out at dusk tonight to try out for the first time a call back procedure that Emily Joachim had recommended to me. Basically it consists of playing a specific little owl call (on my mobile phone) for a set period of time and then waiting to see if any local owls respond to you by calling back. To be honest I was a little sceptical but never the less I thought I'd try it out. After parking up I played the owl call out of the open window for 20 seconds, it then fell deafly silent whilst I waited for a response...................bloody hell a return call in an instant, my god it does work!!!! During previous visits to this site I had only ever seen 1 bird and I could now make him out up above me peering down out of a tiny crevice, I played the recording again. Oh my god there wasn't just the one owl calling back but TWO!!!! It appears he had been hiding his soul mate and it was good to finally make contact with her after all this time!

Site 32, Sambury Farm - Peatling Magna

1 comment:

  1. If you see a bloody great shape lumbering towards you, it'll probably be me mistaking you for one of our little friends!!!!!!!

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